Indonesia: Sleeping at the Airport and Getting Stuck in Yogya

With the way we were brisk-walking towards the train station, you wouldn’t think we didn’t get much sleep the night before.

We arrived at the Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport just a few minutes past midnight. Since our connecting flight to Yogyakarta was at 6am this morning, we decided to just pass the time at the airport. From Terminal 1, we took a cab to Terminal 3, apparently dedicated to all Air Asia flights.

Terminal 3: our hotel for the night

At the departure area on the second floor, we found these tiny chairs, which we turned into our beds for the night. It took a little contorting but we managed to rest, albeit uncomfortably.

Our sofabeds for the nightYup, that’s a full-grown person sleeping right there

Now, at almost 11am, I tried to keep up with The Hubby, pausing every now and then to snap some photos like this one…

Finally, after only stopping once to ask for directions, we found what we were looking for.

The Yogyakarta Train Station

The plan was to chill out in Yogya today, visit Borobudur and Prambanan Temples tomorrow morning and catch the train back to Jakarta in the evening. So we needed to buy our tickets in advance. Why the hurry? Oh, did I mention that we only had four days in Indonesia? So basically we had two days to spend in each city. Needless to say, we were running on a really tight schedule.

Inside the train station, we found ourselves in a bit of a fix. Train tickets are not sold online (i.e. we had to purchase them in person). But here’s the thing, almost all the signs and train schedules posted on the walls were in Bahasa.

We couldn’t understand a thing! Hubby eventually went inside the information office. After briefly talking with the mustached man behind the desk, he came out looking defeated.

“He says all trips to Jakarta tomorrow evening are fully booked. The only available seats are at 10am.”

Oh shit.

Apparently, it was holiday weekend so almost everyone was going to Jakarta! The guy also told him to go to the reservation office if we still wanted to purchase our tickets.

The two of us were at a loss. If we leave for Jakarta tomorrow morning, then what’s the point of going all the way here? I just wanted to see Borubudor, a birthday gift for myself. On the other hand, we’ve already paid in advance for our accommodations in Jakarta. Sayang naman if we just stayed here! But how else were we getting out of Yogya in the evening? One option was to fly out but how do we book a flight from Yogyakarta to Jakarta? it’s too late and expensive to book now. Our only chance was to take the bus. But was it a good idea?